Beauty vs. the Beast

by M. J. Rodgers

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Your Honor, Mr. Croghan cannot call Roy Nye to the stand since Roy no longer exists,” Kay said quickly.

  “The defense attorney can’t have it both ways, Your Honor,” Croghan countered. “In one breath she encourages the jury to believe Roy is alive. Now she says he’s gone. I call the body that once housed Roy Nye to take the stand, so the jury can see for themselves if Roy still exists.”

  Ingle turned to Kay. “Do you have a problem with Lee Nye’s coming before this court and jury and telling us that Roy Nye is no longer a part of him, Ms. Kellogg?”

  Damian knew Kay had a problem with it. She didn’t want the bland Lee Nye to take the stand and have Croghan expose him as an emotional vegetable. Damian also knew that exposing Lee that way was in all probability Croghan’s real reason for calling him.

  “Your Honor, it would be improper for Mr. Croghan to call either Lee or Roy, as neither are on his list of witnesses.”

  “But they are, your Honor,” Croghan once again countered. “On page three. Halfway down. L. Nye and R. Nye.”

  “But that’s clearly misleading,” Kay protested. “The initials L and R could easily have been mistaken to mean Larry Nye, the plaintiff’s son, and Rosy Nye, the plaintiff’s daughter.”

  “If you were unclear as to who Mr. Croghan meant, Ms. Kellogg, it was your duty to ask for clarification at the time you received the witness list. Objection overruled. Lee Nye will take the stand.”

  It was hard for even Damian to listen to the first ten minutes of Croghan’s examination. Croghan ruthlessly exposed Lee’s lack of emotions. Every bland robotic answer out of his former patient brought new frowns to the jurors’ faces. The way Kay’s foot was tapping, Damian also knew that she, too, was adding up the damage being done and finding it far too high.

  Finally, Croghan got to the supposed point for his bringing Lee Nye to the stand.

  “Mr. Nye, when you were being treated by Dr. Steele, he found another personality inside you named Roy, didn’t he?”

  “Yes.”

  “But even before you came to see Dr. Steele, you suspected something was amiss when you suffered periodic amnesia, didn’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you subsequently learned that those periods of lost time were when Roy had control over your body, isn’t that true?”

  “Yes.”

  “And now you no longer experience those lost periods of time because Dr. Steele extinguished Roy, isn’t that true?”

  “No.”

  Croghan was obviously surprised at Lee’s answer, because he just stood there staring at him. He wasn’t the only one. Damian found himself also staring.

  “Mr. Nye, I don’t think you understood my question,” Croghan tried again. “Let me rephrase it. Is Roy Nye, the dual-personality who once shared your body, still alive?”

  “Yes.”

  “What? But you can’t be saying that Roy Nye is still inside your mind!” Croghan protested.

  “He has to be, Mr. Croghan,” Lee Nye responded in his bland, emotionless voice.

  “Your Honor, I object!” Croghan blasted at the bench.

  “You’re objecting to the testimony of your own witness, Mr. Croghan?” Ingle asked.

  Croghan’s hands clenched as the blood suffused his face. “This witness is lying! I demand an investigation! I demand formal charges be laid against Dr. Steele and the law firm of Justice Inc.! I demand—”

  “You demand nothing in my courtroom, Mr. Croghan. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you are instructed to ignore Mr. Croghan’s outburst. As we are drawing close to the lunch hour, you are dismissed until two. Remember my admonition not to discuss this case or allow yourselves to be exposed to any media coverage concerning it.” Ingle rapped his gavel. “In my chambers. Both counsel. Now.”

  * * *

  “YOUR HONOR, in view of Lee Nye’s testimony, I move that this suit be dismissed,” Kay said as soon as they got into chambers.

  “No, Your Honor!” Croghan yelled. “We saw no evidence of the Roy Nye personality. It’s clear Lee Nye is lying!”

  Fedora Nye was tugging at Croghan’s white suit sleeve. Some emotion Kay couldn’t quite read flashed through the woman’s eyes. “But what if Roy comes back? What if—”

  Croghan grabbed her hand with his and stared hard into her face. “Roy is gone, Fedora. This is all just a trick. You understand that, don’t you?”

  She nodded mutely and sank back into her chair.

  “Mr. Croghan,” Ingle said, “you’re bandying about some pretty serious charges.”

  Croghan faced Ingle once more. “They can be proved. Have a court-appointed psychologist hypnotize Lee Nye and see if Roy still exists.”

  “Yes, that would appear to be the next logical step.”

  “No, Your Honor,” Damian spoke up. “I’m against any psychologist not trained in MPD hypnotizing—”

  “Of course he is!” Croghan interrupted. “Dr. Steele is afraid of the truth!”

  “He is not!” Kay countered. “Damian is only trying to protect his patient.”

  “All right. All right,” Ingle said, his hands held up in a halt mode. “We’ll get this matter cleared up once and for all. Tomorrow morning, a court-appointed psychologist will interview Lee Nye, under hypnosis if necessary.”

  “In front of the jury.”

  “No, Mr. Croghan. I’m dismissing the jury pending the investigation of this matter. The psychologist and Lee Nye will be in my chambers at ten o’clock tomorrow morning for this off-the-record session. Now, out of here. All of you.”

  As they exited the judge’s chambers, Kay heard Croghan ask the bailiff to let him and Fedora exit through the jury room along with her and Damian.

  “Appears our flamboyant adversary has suddenly become camera shy,” she whispered to Damian. “You must have mixed emotions about the outcome of that session tomorrow morning. Shall we discuss them over lunch?”

  “Later. I have to leave now.”

  Kay’s eyes shot to his face. “Leave?”

  “There’s something I have to attend to.” He smiled at her. “I promise a full-course, proper candlelit dinner. I’ll pick you up at six-thirty. Okay?”

  Kay nodded as Damian gave her forehead a quick kiss. She watched him all but run to the courthouse’s back staircase and disappear behind the door. Where was he going in such a rush?

  “Ms. Kellogg? What do you think of this morning’s revelations?”

  She turned to find herself face-to-face with an enterprising TV news reporter who had obviously begun checking the side halls when the principals to this case stopped exiting from the front of the courtroom. As the lights from the camera flashed in her eyes, Kay found that for once she didn’t have to fake the smile that lifted her lips.

  “Whichever way the jury chooses to look at the evidence that came to light this morning, they have to see that Mrs. Nye clearly has no case against Dr. Damian Steele. That’s all I have time for now. So, if you’ll excuse me—”

  But as Kay turned and began to walk away, the persistent reporter followed.

  “Ms. Kellogg, is Roy Nye alive? Did Dr. Steele fail to extinguish him, after all?”

  Kay didn’t turn around to respond to the question because she knew if she did, she would just be inviting more questions.

  And also because she didn’t have the faintest idea what answer she could give.

  * * *

  “WE’RE EATING in a hotel room, Damian?”

  He closed and locked the door to the presidential suite and took her purse and wrap.

  “Our faces are too well known to chance a restaurant. I doubt there’s anyone in Seattle who hasn’t heard of this case and isn’t turning to their TV each night for the latest developments.”

  He brought her to him and just held her there, luxuriating in the feel of her warm, soft body and the sweet scent of her skin and hair.

  “I want to have dinner with you in peace, Kay.” He raised his
wrist to check his watch. “And between now and when it’s delivered, I intend to satisfy another appetite.”

  He swept her off her feet and carried her into the bedroom. She wrapped her arms around his neck in a happy sigh.

  He laid her on the bed and undressed her slowly, gently, leaving a trail of soft warm kisses on every inch of her exposed flesh. Once again he was in awe of the way she fed her body to him with such openness and trust.

  Her scent and taste were so sweet and so incredibly sexy that he nearly lost all his careful conscious control. Only his need to make this night special for her kept his desire in check as he ran his tongue and mouth over her scintillatingly hot flesh.

  She pressed against him, a long suffocated cry breaking through her lips as she shot to her first peak. He smiled.

  Never had the feel of a woman brought him so much pleasure. Never had he wanted to pleasure a woman so much.

  She reached for him, but he held her back. He wanted more for her. He wanted everything for her with a hunger that grew more insatiable every second. Mercilessly, he licked and stroked and plundered her soft, steamy flesh. She moaned in frantic waves, yelling his name like a curse only to end up whimpering it softly like a benediction as wave after wave of a new climax shook her.

  His eyes raked over her beautiful body as it lay relaxed and limp on the rumpled sheets. Sane psychologist be damned, his mind yelled in triumph. He was the ravishing beast and she the ravished!

  Or so he thought for a second more before two surprisingly limber white legs suddenly shot around his thighs, captured them and dragged him to her. She sheathed him inside her in a bold, brazen move, contracting around him, planting searing kisses across his chest, knocking the breath right out of his body.

  He gripped her hips, all reason and resistance shattered as he sunk deeper into her heated flesh, with each thrust happily, willingly becoming prisoner to her sumptuous heat.

  He felt her shudders and his own tearing through their joined flesh simultaneously, and he knew her wholehearted entry into their lovemaking would always undo him.

  She made him feel so damn powerful. And so damn weak.

  He should end this. He wasn’t the kind of a man who could give this woman the commitment of marriage and children that she wanted—deserved. The only decent thing he could do was to stop this. Now.

  But he couldn’t stop it. He wanted her too badly. He wasn’t decent. He was selfish and greedy.

  He was the beast, with beauty captured in his arms. And he wasn’t going to let her go.

  * * *

  KAY SNUGGLED her back and bottom spoonlike against his chest and belly in spectacular contentment. And with absolutely no reason for that contentment.

  Damian Steele was still her client. He was still that man so haunted by the brutality of his father toward his mother that he had ruled out marriage and family—the very things she wanted—from his life.

  So what was she doing cradled in his arms so completely contented and happy? It was totally illogical.

  We’re just all mysteries waiting to unfold.

  How true. How damn true.

  He snuggled up to her, his breath warm and tantalizing against her ear. She sighed from the pure pleasure of feeling him so close.

  “I have some good news,” she said.

  He nibbled on her ear. “Hmm.”

  “AJ found Dr. Pat Fetter.”

  “Hmm.”

  “AJ’s the best, no doubt about it. She says Dr. Fetter agreed to come back Friday to testify. Depending on what happens tomorrow morning, of course, we may not need her. I left a message for Jerry Tummel to let him know I’ll contact him if he doesn’t have to show.”

  “Hmm.”

  “Could Roy really be back, do you think?”

  “Hmm.”

  He laid a delicious string of kisses across the back of her neck. She sighed. “Damian, are you listening to me?” she asked a bit breathless and getting more so by the second.

  His hands had circled to her breasts and had begun to work their magic once again. “Why, you say something?”

  She sighed in ecstasy, finding it was impossible to be mad at the man who could do this to her body. “Are all you psychologists so damn sexy?”

  “Are all you lawyers so damn talkative?” he responded before claiming her lips with his in a warm, wet kiss.

  A knock sounded on the suite door.

  Reluctantly, Damian let her go. “That’ll be the food,” he said as he slipped off the bed. He stepped into the bathroom and came back with two robes, a monogram of the hotel name on their breast pockets. He tossed one to her and put the other on, cinching it around his lean waist.

  “The main course will be consumed in his-and-her terry cloth tonight. For dessert, however, dress is definitely optional.”

  He blew her a quick kiss before leaving the room to answer the door. Kay got off the bed and slipped into her robe, a happy little smile playing about her mouth. A whole night. Together.

  “Dr. Damian Steele?” an official-sounding voice asked from the next room. Kay immediately stiffened.

  “Yes. What is this?”

  “Dr. Steele, please come with us. You’re wanted for questioning.”

  Kay cinched her robe and rushed into the next room.

  “Questioning for what?” Damian was asking.

  Kay halted in growing alarm as she spied the two uniformed police officers standing just inside the suite. They flashed her a quick look before answering, “In connection with the disappearance of Lee Nye. Please get dressed. You, too, Ms. Kellogg.”

  * * *

  “WHAT EVIDENCE do they have against me?” Damian asked as Kay and Adam sat across from him, prisoner barrier between them, in the holding cell interview room the next morning.

  Adam’s face was stoic, as always, his light reflective eyes giving no hint as to what his thoughts might be. “Lee Nye’s neighbor saw you leaving his apartment moments after hearing a commotion.”

  “What kind of commotion?”

  “She claims she was in the tub when an angry raised voice coming from Lee’s apartment, followed by a suspicious thud, alarmed her. She slipped into a robe and came out into the hall. That’s when she says she saw you leave. She knocked on Lee’s door and got no response. She went back to her apartment and called 911.”

  “But they didn’t find Lee inside his apartment?”

  “No. But they did find blood on the carpet and a heavy, bloodied brass bookend, wiped free of fingerprints, on the floorboard in the back seat of your Jaguar.”

  “Of course it was planted,” Kay spoke up quickly.

  Damian sent her a brief smile before turning his attention back to Adam. “What else?”

  “The blood on the bookend has been matched to the blood on the carpet. Lee’s cleaning lady has identified the brass bookend as belonging to Lee. She claims it was in his apartment yesterday morning when she cleaned it.”

  “But no one knows the whereabouts of Lee Nye?” Damian asked.

  Kay nodded. “The police know about the judge’s order to have Lee Nye hypnotized this morning. They also know you were against it. They think you went to his apartment and got into an argument about it, then struck him with that bookend, wiped the apartment of your fingerprints, carried Lee’s body out to your car and then dumped it somewhere.”

  Damian exhaled a heavy breath. “So I take it the inside of Lee’s apartment was wiped clean of fingerprints?”

  “Yes.”

  Kay moved to the edge of her chair. Her eyes and voice were soft, questioning. “Damian, did you go to Lee’s apartment yesterday?”

  Damian looked into those soft, questioning blueberry eyes.

  “Yes, I went to Lee’s apartment, but when I didn’t get an answer to my knock, I left. I never was inside, so that neighbor couldn’t have seen me coming out.”

  Kay nodded. “I knew it had to be something like that. Since the neighbor heard noises and then saw you walking away from the door, she
just assumed you had come out of the apartment.”

  Damian smiled at her. She had certainly come to his defense quickly. For a hard-nosed attorney, the lady’s faith in his innocence shone like a beacon.

  “Why did you go to Lee’s apartment?” Adam asked.

  Damian turned his attention to the man with the pale, mirror eyes, knowing that intellect—never emotion—would guide the man’s decision in this matter. “To talk to Lee and find out why he believes Roy is back,” Damian answered.

  “But he didn’t answer the door, so you haven’t seen him since his appearance in court yesterday?”

  “That’s right.”

  “What about the bloodied bookend?” Adam asked. “Any idea how it got into the back of your car?”

  “None. I locked my car when I left it on the street in front of Lee’s apartment. Only time I don’t bother locking it is when it’s parked at the house.”

  “So someone could have tossed the bookend in the back seat when you returned to your home yesterday afternoon?”

  “Yes.”

  “Anything else you can tell us?” Adam asked.

  “No. What are the chances of my getting out of here?”

  “The police have some incriminating circumstantial evidence, but they don’t have a body. They’re detaining you on an investigative hold. If they don’t find Lee’s body by the time this goes before a judge tonight, I may be able to get you released.”

  “Tonight?”

  “That’s the soonest I can get you out of here, Damian. Investigative hold is twenty-four hours. I’ll go get the wheels in motion right now. Hang tight. Coming, Kay?”

  “I’ll join you in a minute.”

  She waited until Adam had exited the room before turning to Damian.

  “Adam is the best criminal lawyer in the state.”

  Damian wished this damn prisoner barrier weren’t between them. He so wanted to touch her hand, her face, to try to wipe the sadness from her eyes. “Yes, I know.”

  She sighed. “I forgot. One of these days, you’re going to have to tell me how you two met.”

  “Maybe one of these days. I see we made the front page of the newspaper this morning. The description of our being found together in ‘intimate attire’ in a hotel room must be causing you considerable difficulty. I’m sorry.”